When Nog and Jake Sisko came on board the Valiant, Watters had been taking cordafin stimulants for two months, presumably to counter the overwhelming pressure of his job. Although Watters successfully conducted the Valiant to fulfilling its original mission, Watters became overconfident and ordered the ship to attack a Jem'Hadar battleship, despite Sisko's strong objections. Watters claimed that the Valiant could exploit a key weakness in the battleship's antimatter storage braces, which would eventually tear the ship apart.

However, the plan failed, and Cadet Captain Watters, with most of his crew, died in the destruction of the Valiant. In summing up his experience with Watters, Nog noted: "He may have been a hero... he may even have been a great man... but in the end, he was a bad captain." (DS9: "Valiant")

The storyline of "Valiant" strongly suggests that Watters intentionally hid the location and status of Valiant from Starfleet. By continuing his "mission", he would have an excuse to avoid returning to Starfleet and becoming a mere cadet again. Given that Jake and Nog had just left Starbase 257 in the beginning of the episode, the Valiant was only a few days or weeks travel from that base and Watters could have returned to Federation space at any time.